Service agreements carry the price
Buyers favor maintenance agreements because customers rarely cancel them. A company with a few hundred active agreements looks safer than one that lives on emergency calls in July.
Count the agreements, show renewal rates and keep the list current. Brokers use that to argue for the top of the range.
Technicians are the asset
A buyer cannot run the company without licensed technicians. Expect questions about pay, tenure and who holds the license on file, since the license holder leaving can stall a sale.
If you are the only licensed person, line up a successor before listing. Otherwise the buyer sees a company that stops when you do.
New installs versus service
Replacement jobs bring big tickets but swing with the season and with financing. Service and repair bring smaller tickets that repeat. Buyers want both, and they want to see margins on each.
Show gross profit by job type for three years. Falling margin while revenue dips invites questions about payroll and parts costs.
Fleet, tools and inventory
Trucks, gauges and stocked parts all sit on the asset list. Buyers want a count of vans, their age and any liens, and they ask whether the parts inventory is real or leftover.
Heavy inventory relative to earnings can break bank financing, so right size it before listing.
Getting ready
Clean up the books so one working owner's real pay shows up as an add back, not a mystery. Our note on seller discretionary earnings walks through it.
Check your trucks and tools for liens, and read about lease approval if you rent a shop. Then request a price range.
Who Writes the Check
- Regional heating and cooling consolidatorPays for technicians, service agreements and a customer list it can feed new products.
- Private equity backed home services groupWants recurring maintenance revenue and a manager who stays after closing.
- Lead technician or service manager with SBA financingKnows the trucks and the customers and needs the books to support a loan.